There's Magic To Do - New York April 2014 Pre trip report

[AlisonB]

Well - I think I ought to do the updates for a bit (as I've been doing all the planning and bookings!)

So we had flights booked, and accommodation. That's the main stuff taken care of, but there was lots more to arrange! The main thing was for us to get our Pippin tickets - I can't believe how much more expensive Broadway tickets are than the West End. We are lucky enough to live just half an hour away from central London and being a big fan of musicals, I see a lot of shows! 4 tickets cost us $588 - over £90 per ticket. I know they were good seats but still!

Anyway, it is a must do for us so we had to pay!

Then we sorted out our Heathrow parking - picked up a good deal at Purple Parking for about £38 for the 7 days. It's not too far from the airport either.

Next I updated all our Estas, entered the API data on the Virgin website, and made a note in the calendar of when to go online to request/reserve seats.

And the final thing I sorted was travel insurance... we kicked ourselves that we didn't book annual travel insurance last August as it would have covered us for this trip too - but no matter, it wasn't too expensive in the grand scheme of things!

All the above was done in December and early January.

The next part of the planning was to work out what we wanted to do! That's an update for another day!

[Cinnabon]

We love the theater, but not booking anything, may see whats at the half price booth when we get there.

The planning is so exciting.

[Glee Fan]

All sounds excellent!

Will be reading along for tips, as we go in August

Great pics of the girls, ha ha!

[Gill H]

If Forbidden Broadway is on, you should go. It is a wonderful show that takes the mickey out of all the Broadway shows. Tickets are cheap and we got a discount through Broadwaybox website.

If you know lots of shows you will love it!

Plenty of clips on YouTube.

Also what about Aladdin? I would be rushing to see that if it was me. The new songs are excellent.

[AlisonB]

To be honest if it was just me and Laura we'd be at a show every night, but I'm mindful that a) not all the family want to do that and b) it would cost a lot of money! We can't really pay out the best part of $600 every night (or even more than once really).

I will look into Forbidden Broadway though - it sounds right up my street!

[Nesbits]

I'm a little concerned, how will Shaun manage in the city that that never sleeps?

We did a last big holiday with our kids to new York, las Vegas and Los Angeles (we paid), we are going to WDW Florida this year and they are paying for themselves! Never say never!

Have a ball (never heard of pippin)

[BONZO]

Originally Posted by Nesbits

I'm a little concerned, how will Shaun manage in the city that that never sleeps?

We did a last big holiday with our kids to new York, las Vegas and Los Angeles (we paid), we are going to WDW Florida this year and they are paying for themselves! Never say never!

Have a ball (never heard of pippin)

See more...

Well, that's the grumps started early then!

I keep looking at the weather forecast! - Brrrrrrrrrr!

[Gill H]

Originally Posted by AlisonB

To be honest if it was just me and Laura we'd be at a show every night, but I'm mindful that a) not all the family want to do that and b) it would cost a lot of money! We can't really pay out the best part of $600 every night (or even more than once really).

I will look into Forbidden Broadway though - it sounds right up my street!

See more...

Two of the shows we did cost more like $30 a seat at the time. I see FB is $79 now. We signed up to Broadwaybox website and nipped to the box office with a discount voucher, easily got seats for that night.

[AlisonB]

Brilliant - thanks Gill! Laura and I will have to see what everyone else wants to do (and try to persuade them that they really want to go to more shows!)

[AlisonB]

I'm not very much further on with the planning! We have a sort of 'bucket list' of things we want to do so I just need to plan them in (these are not listed in any particular order - it was just a bit of a brain dump!):

NY Library
Grand Central Station
Walkin' Broadway Tour
Central Park
Ground Zero - 9/11 tribute
Statue of Liberty
Empire State
Coney Island
High Line
TOTR
Ellis Island
Brooklyn Bridge
MOMA
Guggenheim
Roosevelt Island
Radio City Music Hall
Bowling/mini golf
Forbidden broadway
Pippin - BOOKED
Batsu
PIT
Macy's
Bloomingdale's
South Street Seaport
Century 21

I need to try and plan so that we are not backtracking all the time, and also be mindful that there are things that we don't all want to do! There's not enough time to do everything, so we will just be picking and choosing.

I also need to wait to see what the weather is doing - time is running out as we go in less that 2 weeks.